Shoes
by TheKingdomYasha
Summary: It was another sleepless night for Natsu, because he was on his mind.
Hello all! Instead of my previous two fanfictions, this one will be a cute Gratsu one-shot. I hope you enjoy!

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Natsu asleep in his apartment when we suddenly woke up with trouble to go back to sleep. He was laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Gray was the only thing on his mind. Ever since he heard Gray tell him not to die, he had a strange feeling about the ice mage. He had done a pretty good job of keeping his feelings hidden, but as every day goes by, his feelings got harder and harder to hide. There were a couple times where people caught him staring at Gray, and he would simply shrug it off and say Gray looked stupid or something to cover his blush.

He sat up and looked at the time which read two thirty in the morning. He got up from his bed and rubbed his eyes. He put on his clothes and walked outside. It was June, so it wasn't very cold outside. He walked around the town, and ended up near Gray's house. He enjoyed his time walking around and stopped at Gray's house. He knocked on his front door, but nobody answered. Gray was probably a deep sleeper. Natsu walked around and opened a window that was by Gray's bedroom. He walked in the house and shivered from the temperature in Gray's house. 'Damn ice queen…it's fucking Antarctica in here!' he thought. He walked into Gray's bedroom and spotted Gray's sleeping figure in his bed. He was on his side, his back facing Natsu. The comforter was covering him up to the middle of his back, and his figure was rising up and down with his breath. Natsu slowly took off his shoes and climbed into Gray's bed and wrapped himself in the comforter. A couple minutes after Natsu fell asleep, Gray went stiff and turned his head.

"Who the fuck are you?!" he shouted. He turned on the lamp on his nightstand and looked at Natsu, who was fast asleep in his bed. "N-Natsu?! What the hell are you doing here?"

Natsu grumbled in his sleep and squinted his eyes open.

"Can you turn off the light? I can't sleep with light." Said Natsu. Gray was baffled.

"W-Wha—Natsu! Get out of my house!" said Gray. Natsu just grumbled.

"But Graaay, I can't sleep in my house." Said Natsu.

"That's not my problem! How did you get in here anyway?!" asked Gray. "The doors are all locked."

"Yeah, but your windows weren't." said Natsu.

"You broke into my house because you couldn't sleep?!" asked Gray. Natsu became impatient and stood up on his knees and crawled over to Gray's side of the bed to turn off the light.

"Now go to sleep, Gray." Said Natsu. Gray turned on the light again and made Natsu look at him.

"Natsu, why are you in my bed?" asked Gray.

"I already told you, I couldn't sleep at my house." Said Natsu, cuddling closer to Gray and snuggled into the comforter even more.

"That doesn't mean you can just break into my house and take my bed." Said Gray. Natsu just sighed and threw off the comforter.

"Fine, fine. I'm going! Happy?" asked Natsu. He got out of Gray's bed and walked out of his room. Gray felt a sudden guilt. He couldn't sleep for some reason that he wasn't spilling.

"Natsu, wait." Said Gray. Natsu turned and came back into the room.

"Yeah?"

"If…if you tell me why you can't sleep, you can stay here for tonight." Said Gray. Natsu immediately blushed.

"Uh…I'll…just get going." Said Natsu.

"NO!" shouted Gray. He jumped out of bed, wearing only his boxer briefs and stood in front of Natsu. "You're hiding something, fire freak!" said Gray.

"No I'm not!"

"Then why won't you tell me why you can't sleep?" asked Gray.

"Because it's none of your business!"

"It kind of is, because you could have chosen Erza's house, Lucy's house, or even Mirajane's house, but you chose mine which is one the other side of town. Why?" asked Gray. Natsu was silent for a minute and immediately started to blush.

"I…uh…"

"Just spill it! It can't be that ba—"

"I like you, Gray!" said Natsu. There was an awkward silence.

"W-What…?" asked Gray. Natsu blushed even harder in embarrassment.

"Yeah. Can I leave now?" said Natsu. Gray didn't say anything.

"So…that means you're…" started Gray.

"Yeah, it's you. But since I already told you and I'm just now starting it, so we can both forget this whole thing happened, and everything will be back to normal hopefully." Said Natsu. He walked around Gray and he left his house. Gray just stood there, in shock.

Natsu walked home and he tried his hardest to not cry his heart out. 'I'm a fucking idiot. Why did I think this was a good idea?' Natsu thought before he wiped the tears off of his face with his sleeves. He went back to his house and laid in bed until the morning came.

As for Gray, he sat on his bed, processing what just happened.

'Natsu…he likes me? So that's why he wanted to sleep here…and I just let him go…' he thought. "I'm sorry, Natsu." Said Gray. He turned off the light and laid in his bed that now had Natsu's scent and warmth. He laid on the side Natsu was on, since it was still warm. He felt horrible for just letting Natsu leave. 'He's really just gonna forget this whole thing happened…' he drifted off into his sleep, filled with guilt and worry.

The next morning, Gray woke up normally before he remembered what had happened that night. His mood instantly was ruined by the same guilt he felt before. He got up and got ready to go to Natsu's house to talk. He got to his front door around six in the morning, expecting him to still be asleep. He knocked on the door and Natsu surprisingly answered very quickly.

"Oh, h-hey." Said Natsu. Gray had a sad expression on his face.

"Hey, about last night…"

"I thought I told you to forget about it." Said Natsu with a worried yet angry expression.

"I know you did, but…I just want to make sure you're okay with it." Said Gray. Natsu felt like his heart shattered. He wanted to forget about it, but he didn't realize how hard reality would hit when he heard Gray agree so willingly. It clearly meant that Gray didn't feel the same way about him.

"Yeah…yeah, I am." Said Natsu, avoiding eye contact. Gray noticed that he wasn't looking right.

"A-Are you sure? We're still good?" asked Gray. Natsu just nodded and smiled a clearly fake smile, which Gray also noticed.

"Alright, so I'll see you at the guild hall, right?" asked Natsu. Gray nodded and he was off on his way. His mood didn't change.

'I…I feel horrible. I probably broke his heart.' Said Gray. His eyes welled up and he quickly dried them up.

Natsu instantly started crying after Gray left.

'I need to stop being a fucking baby…' he thought as he sobbed. His teeth gritted together as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Gray realized that he forgot to tell Natsu that he forgot his shoes at his house, so he hurried back and realized that Natsu's front door was open. He walked in to talk to him and saw Natsu sitting on his couch, crying his poor heart out. Gray's eyes started to water.

"N-Natsu…" he said aloud. Natsu froze and turned around to see Gray on the verge of tears, but he looked angry. "Y-You told me you were going to be fine..." He said as a tear fell down his cheek. Natsu stood up and he was crying as well.

"I…I didn't want you to feel bad…" he said. Gray walked up to Natsu and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I hurt you, Natsu. I know I don't feel the same way, but I shouldn't have just shrugged it off like it was nothing…" said Gray, burying his face in Natsu's shoulder. Natsu began to sob as he held Gray as tight as he could.

"I'm so sorry…I'm…so sorry." Repeated Gray.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Gray. Stop apologizing." Said Natsu. He broke the hug and wiped his eyes. "Besides, it's probably just a phase, I'll get over it." He added. Gray just looked him in the eyes for awhile and just nodded. Natsu wiped Gray's face and cupped his cheek with his hand. "Thanks for caring, though."

"You idiot, you're my best friend, of course I care." Said Gray.

"So, where do we go from here?" asked Natsu. There was a short awkward silence before Gray replied.

"I'm not sure. Are we going to be back to normal?" he asked. Natsu had a small look of disappointment that Gray didn't miss.

"Yeah, that way nothing will be weird, right?" asked Natsu. Gray blushed in embarrassment. Was he asking him that to make fun of him or was this a serious question? Gray just nodded.

"If that's alright with you…" he said. Natsu just smiled.

"I-It is." Said Natsu. Gray got angry with him.

"No it's not! Stop lying! You're just saying that it's all good so things will go back to normal, but things won't go back to normal at all! I can't just agree to let this go while you mope around here, making yourself sad over this. I won't let that happen again!" said Gray.

"Again?" asked Natsu. Gray blushed and looked down.

"When you left my house last night…Natsu I felt horrible. I felt guilty for just letting you go like that. Yeah, I may not like you like that, but it was wrong to just let you go…" said Gray. He balled his fists. "And today…you wanted me to pretend like nothing happened, and I find you here like _this_." Said Gray. "It's either you face the facts or we can't be friends! I'm sorry Natsu, but unless we get together, this friendship isn't going to work out, and I don't feel for you what you feel for me." said Gray. Natsu looked shocked.

"No… _I'm_ sorry. I'm sorry that I got my heart broken! It's not really easy coping with that, you know!" shouted Natsu. Gray's eyes widened.

"Natsu, I…"

"No! Maybe it's best if we just go our separate ways. You can leave my house now." Said Natsu. Gray was speechless.

"N-Natsu…"

"Get out!"

He just walked out of Natsu's house and closed the door behind him. Natsu instantly started crying again. He sat on his couch and covered his face with his hands as he let everything out.

Gray opened the front door to his house and the first thing his eyes landed on were Natsu's shoes. He began to weep as he remembered the night for the millionth time that day. He crawled into bed and cried his heart out until he fell asleep with tear stains on his cheeks.

It was about two weeks later and neither Gray or Natsu spoke to each other. Jobs haven't been available since they were under review by Master, so Team Natsu didn't have anything planned so far.  
Natsu had been home alone for quite a while with Happy. He was still a bit down from missing Gray. It was still surreal to him that they weren't friends anymore. The two were watching TV before there was a knock at the door. Natsu got up and opened the door. It was him. Gray Fullbuster. Natsu didn't know what to say until he saw what he was holding. His shoes.

"I can't look at these anymore." Said Gray. Natsu noticed that he wasn't giving eye contact. Natsu simply took the shoes from his hands.

"Thanks for dropping them off." He said as he was closing the door. Gray stopped it with his hand.

"So you're just gonna close the door in my face?" asked Gray. Since Gray was looking him in the eye, Natsu could see his face. He had been crying.

"Was…I not supposed to?" asked Natsu. Gray just looked down.

"Do…do you think we could talk?" asked Gray. Natsu nodded, even though he didn't want to. He knew that it would be ending up with him crying, and he has done enough of that. Gray walked in and took his shoes off before he sat down on the couch.

"Happy, could you go into the other room?" asked Natsu. "Me and Gray need to talk in private." Said Natsu. Happy just nodded and grabbed his fish and was in the other room with the door closed behind him.

There was a long pause before anyone said anything.

"It—" started Gray. Natsu waited to see if he would say anything else. "It feels like someone died." Said Gray. Natsu just looked down. Now he was the one who felt guilty.

"Yeah, I know…" he replied. He wanted to tell Gray how much he missed him, but it would be too much.

"I don't want to feel like that anymore." Said Gray in a soft tone. "I think I love you, Natsu." Said Gray. Natsu just looked furious, which made Gray confused.

"That's not fucking funny." Said Natsu in a louder tone. Gray didn't know what to say. Did this really go that far? Where he's not even believing him? That he was just making some sick joke?

"N-Natsu, it wasn't a joke." Said Gray.

"Stop."

"Stop what?"

"Just stop talking about it." Said Natsu. His voice was cracking.

"But Natsu…I really do love you! Why can't you believe me?" asked Gray. Natsu felt tears streaming down his face.

"Because it's not real…it's never going to be real." Said Natsu. "I'm sorry…I should have never came over that night…I'm the wrong one." Said Natsu. Gray wanted to kill himself. He didn't deserve to live after what he put Natsu, the guy who could make anyone smile, look like this. Gray stood up and sat next to Natsu before he continued. "That way everything would have never been changed. I'm sorry, Gray." He said as he cried harder. Gray was now crying with him.

"I love you, Natsu." He repeated. Natsu just shook his head. Gray held Natsu close to

him. "I missed you so much…I didn't know I could miss anyone that much." He added. "This isn't some cruel joke, or some way to get you to be happy, or whatever you think it is. I love you. I really do." He said. He kissed Natsu's forehead. Natsu hugged Gray back. "and I'm sorry that I made you go through this..." said Gray between sobs. Natsu had calmed down a bit, but was lightly crying still, although Gray was letting it all out. He squeezed the pinkette so close so that he could never lose him again.

"Gray...I…I really hope you mean it." Said Natsu. He felt Gray nod his head and embrace him even tighter.

"I do. I'll never hurt you or leave you again. I love you so much, Natsu. I…I can't imagine my life without you. The past two weeks have been hell…please forgive me. I'm so sorry." He said as he kissed Natsu on his cheek and his shoulder.

"I forgive you Gray…I love you too." He said. Gray looked at Natsu and his face lit up. He grabbed Natsu's head and brought him in for a kiss. The kiss was passionate, full of need, forgiveness, and sorrow. They broke the kiss and Gray gave him a peck on his nose.

"I promise, I won't leave…I won't leave." Said Gray. Natsu smiled and wiped Gray's tears and kissed him again.

"Neither will I."

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Alright, this one turned out a bit more angsty than I expected.


End file.
